February 21, 2017- More Childhood Memories- Part 3

NYC

Mike was recently talking to Mom about the time that we went to NYC to see Regis Philbin on “The Morning Show “in the early 80s. He was mainly mentioning that Dad was a cheapskate that day. He took the 3 of us to lunch at Woolworths instead of trying to find a more unique place to eat. Mike remembers that he got a BLT sandwich. He seems to have a good memory for food related things.

Wildwood

Mike and I were reminiscing about our childhood vacations to Wildwood. He mentioned the tram cars on the boardwalk. I can still hear it’s prerecorded “Watch the tram car, please” message/warning in my head. He laughed when I said it aloud.

   

   Kathy and I had our pictures taken in one of the photo booths there. My brother stuck his hand into this thinking that we were still in it but two other people were by then. I wonder why we don’t have those photos anymore.

   

   Mike won his binoculars, Pink Panther pewter figures (I wish that he still had them), and a Walkman at one of the arcades. He used points from the games on them. We really enjoyed playing Skee-Ball there. Kathy and her Mom’s favorite was Fascination. I can’t remember what I won with my points. I do know that I never got as many as my brother and Kathy did.

Tram Car

Skee Ball

Fascination

                        

                        

The Van

Mike reminded me that we used to be driven to our grade school in a van for a year- or was it two? I am pretty sure that it was the same avocado green one that Miss K., our Girl Scout leader and 4^th grade teacher, used when our troop went on trips. I can’t remember if it was her or someone else, like a classmates’ parent, who did the driving.

   

   Did the school or Miss K own this van?  There might have even been another similar one that was possibly owned by Miss M, our troops’ co-leader and my classmate’s mother.

1973 Ford Econoline Van

Note- photos from internet- tram car, Skee Ball, Fascination, and the van

Dreamtime

January 5, 2012- A Nightmare Vacation                                                                                             

 I was sitting on a lounge chair by a pool at a hotel. I looked over at the one next to me and saw John Taylor there. He was in the middle of talking about Donna Summer’s song “I Feel Love” with me. I had been in my living room watching TV just seconds before being teleported to this setting.

   I could hear “Escape- The Pina Colada Song” on the stereo system. I mentioned to John that this song was on one of my K-Tel compilation albums. It was nice but also odd that the two of us were having such a conversation in this environment. I discovered that we were in Panama City Beach, Florida.

   Only 15 minutes later, however, some strange and scary things began happening. I saw a man turn into a cartoon character, The Pink Panther. He was still drinking a beer afterwards. He must have also lost his human personality because he didn’t seem to be upset about this.

    A woman changed into The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She chased after a few people but then just sat down on a chair. A girl screamed out that her boyfriend Bob had transformed into a Smurf. I saw him hiding behind a potted plant.

    Everyone was very frightened that something horrible would eventually happen to them too. John was worried about Simon who was at the nearby beach. I went with him to see if Simon was alright.

   We saw that he had just turned into the early 20s version of himself both in appearance and personality. He wasn’t aware that he was married. He was checking out the 2 beautiful girls who were playing Frisbee.

   A man had transformed into a 6 foot Godzilla. He was chasing after people and breathing fire. People were freaking out and running. John tried getting Simon to come with him but he would not leave the beach.

   We ran back to the hotel. I saw a teenage girl in the lobby change into a 65 year old woman. She was crying. Her mother was trying to comfort her. I also noticed a few more Smurfs running around.

   I was feeling so upset that this program had turned into such a nightmare. The mean aliens must have hacked into it. I saw a big foot type monster coming towards us. John grabbed my hand- this sort of surprised me- and we escaped to an area near the restaurant.

   He was no longer holding my hand now. In fact, when I looked next to me, he wasn’t even there. I heard a faint voice saying “I am down here”.  I looked down and saw that John had become Papa Smurf.

   About 7 Smurfs came over to him. They were fully the cartoon characters by now. One of them asked Papa Smurf what they should do. He said “I don’t fucking know!” That sounded so wrong. But then approximately 12 seconds later, he told them that they should all run away from the humans and creatures.

   I watched them following him. I felt even more frightened and alone. The situation got worse when I suddenly felt a strong craving to eat lots of sweets. I went into the restaurant’s kitchen where a few other people were pigging out on all sorts of foods. I could not control myself either.

   I was so relieved that I wasn’t in this frightening storyline for much longer. Is it weird that I was thinking that I would have rather been turned into Smurfette and escaped with Papa John Smurf?

 

 

Note- Godzilla photo is from the internet

 

July 25, 2015- Favorite Cartoons

"Scooby Doo" and many other of the Hanna Barbera ones – “Snagglepuss”,” Huckleberry Hound”, “Yogi Bear”, “Hong Kong Phooey”, “Dastardly and Muttley”, “Ricochet Rabbit”, "Quick Draw McGraw", “Jonny Quest”, “Space Ghost”, and “The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt”.

   “Dungeons and Dragons”, “Battle of the Planets”, “Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse”, “Danger Mouse”, “Inspector Gadget”, “Spiderman and Friends”, “Super Friends and the Hall of Justice”, “Iron Man”, “Godzilla “(with Godzuki), “Rocky and Bullwinkle”, and "The Pink Panther".

   I’m not sure if I would include the “Smurfs”. Well, back then we liked them but I don’t know if I’d want to sit through any of these episodes today like I would with most of these others.

                                                       The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt

 

Snagglepuss

The Pink Panther

 

                                                      Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse

 

Danger Mouse

Rocky and Bullwinkle

 

                                                                  Battle of the Planets

 

                                                              Dungeons and Dragons
                                      
                                    

Godzilla

                                                                        Godzuki
                   

Iron Man

Spiderman and Friends

Super Friends- Hall of Justice

 

 

Note- The first 10 photos are from my Hanna Barbera card collection, the rest are from the internet.

 

 

More TV

My brother was talking about Battlestar Galactica yesterday, not the new one but the cheesy one from the 70s. I did used to watch this and Buck Rogers with him back then. He likes the former more. We liked watching Star Trek together too- he was more into it than I was. I remember when it was on at 6:00 on Saturdays and we would watch this after Mission Impossible at 5:00.

We would watch some of the old shows with our parents. The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Munsters and The Honeymooners. Sometimes we'd watch the Addams Family but I always liked The Munsters more. Now I'm not really into any of these classic shows.

Why did we ever watch Gilligan's Island- Gilligan is so annoying. We liked The Brady Bunch then, don't know if I'd want to watch it now though. Definitely wouldn't watch Three's Company or The Facts of Life. I guess at the time we were into that sort of show. We did watch Little House on the Prarie but I liked the books much better.

Mom used to tell people a story about me that really embarrased me. She said that when I was a little girl that sometimes I used to dance around during the opening of I Dream of Jeannie trying to imitate how the cartoon image of her did so. We watched Bewitched also but I always liked the former better. I really did not care for Darren #2 and Tabitha.

Dad, Mark and I used to watch wrestling in the 80s. I remember many of the wrestlers- The Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Jessie "The Body" Ventura, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Hillbilly Jim, George "The Animal" Steel, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre The Giant and more. Captain Lou the manager just died last year. I can't believe that I used to be into this. Dad even had a record with the stars of wrestling singing. I remember Hillbilly Jim doing Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy.

We liked Happy Days but mostly just the first couple of years before it became mainly The Fonzie show. A relative got me a necklace with him on the charm. My grade school classmate said that she liked it. I still have the charm but not the chain.

I love Hanna Barbera cartoons, especially Scooby Doo. Other favourites- Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, Hong Kong Phooey, Ricochet Rabbit, Auggie Doggie and Dastardly and Muttley. We watched The Jetsons and The Flinstones but didn't care for them as much. Same with Tom and Jerry. Jonny Quest was good too. We weren't as into Bugs and the Warner Brothers cartoons. Loved The Pink Panther, Spiderman and Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Godzilla (with Godzuki), The Superfriends and the Hall of Justice and The Fantastic Four as well

In the 80's we did watch The Smurfs. I'm kind of embarrased to admit that. Sometimes I wished that Gargamel would capture them though which is pretty mean. I liked the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. We watched Inspector Gadget and He-Man also. I think there were a couple of others but I can't remember them right now.

Were The Blue Falcon and Space Ghost Hanna Barbera? Probably. We did watch Rocky and Bullwinkle sometimes but I don't remember much about that. I did have a sweatshirt with them on it when I was a little girl. Nowadays I do have T-Shirts with Scooby Doo and the Pink Panther on them. I don't care that Stacey and Clinton on What Not to Wear say that this is childish and you shouldn't be wearing such shirts.

I think that I forgot to mention The Family Feud on my list of favourite game shows yesterday. A friend of ours had that board game and we'd play it sometimes. Now I'm thinking about the toys and games that I had in my childhood. I still have some of them but not many. That's a topic for another day, however. I've said enough for today.